Case Number 18638

BAD LIEUTENANT: PORT OF CALL NEW ORLEANS (BLU-RAY)

The Charge

The only criminal he can't catch is himself.

Opening Statement

"Is this the same police force my father was in?"

Facts of the Case

Terence McDonagh (Nicholas Cage, National Treasure) is a valued member
of the New Orleans Police Department. He has just been promoted to the rank of
lieutenant and is quickly given a high-profile investigation to work on. Several
people have been brutally murdered. The police department is pretty sure that a
local criminal named Big Fate (Xzibit, American Violet) is responsible;
the problem is finding the evidence to prove it.

McDonagh is suffering from severe back pain, which he attempts to alleviate
with strong prescription medication. As the investigation continues, McDonagh
turns from prescription drugs to illegal ones. His behavior starts to change
too, as McDonagh begins using increasingly less ethical means to go about
getting the information he needs. Will his tactics allow him to complete the
investigation successfully, or will our protagonist be destroyed by his own
behavior?

The Evidence

Two things that you should know upfront: Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New
Orleans has one of the most ungainly titles in recent memory and has very
little whatsoever to do with Abel Ferrera's excellent Bad Lieutenant
(upon which this film is ostensibly based). Well, there's a third thing you
should know: Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans is a genuinely
terrific movie. It is a transcendent film, by which I mean that it transcends
the genre it is working in, the easy moral lessons such films often offer and
Ferrera's film. This is bold, fearless filmmaking, but that's not quite as much
of a surprise. Who would expect less with the great Werner Herzog at the
helm?

Even when the director is working on a studio film with a decent-sized
budget and big stars, Herzog is never merely a talented hired gun. A Herzog film
is always going to feel like a Herzog film, and this effort is no exception.
Most Herzog protagonists (both in his fictional films and documentaries) contain
at least some element of madness; in Terence McDonagh we see echoes of Aguirre,
Fitzcarraldo, and Timothy Treadwell. Even so, the veteran director still has
some new tricks up his sleeve. Yes, it's another Herzog film about a character's
descent into madness, but this time the descent is given a fresh perspective
that's both surprising and unnerving.

Speaking of fresh perspective, the film is littered with quite a lot of
striking imagery (another one of Herzog's strong points as a director). What's
particularly remarkable is that Herzog manages to so convincingly immerse us in
the world of Post-Katrina New Orleans. There are too few films that really allow
the location to feel like a distinct place with a personality of its own. As in
his documentaries, Herzog frequently breaks away from the primary subject at
hand to really study items that might catch our eye that other films might
ignore. Consider the moment in which Cage pauses at a crime scene to read a poem
a child wrote about a fish that lives inside a small cup of water, or the
much-discussed scene in which Herzog offers a pair of iguanas their own extended
point-of-view shots (the real kicker: the iguanas are seemingly hallucinatory
creations of McDonagh's drug-addled mind).

Say what you will about Nicolas Cage, but I'm not sure there's any other
actor who could have played this role as successfully. Cage tears into the part
with the sort of nutso fury we haven't seen from him in quite some time...or
ever, really. It's a wildly over-the-top performance and a very entertaining
one, but there's certainly a method to the madness. This is one of Cage's most
fully-realized performances, with plenty of subtle nuances being incorporated
into the character. Consider the way that Cage so convincingly reminds us of his
severe back pain in the way that he moves; his slightly hunched-over posture
befitting the character's theatrical villainy. How does it compare to Keitel's
performance in the original Bad Lieutenant? Apples and oranges; let's
just acknowledge that they're both striking turns from two very talented (albeit
very different) actors.

The supporting cast is littered with talented folks who turn in good work.
Eva Mendes (We Own the Night) is basically promoted on the packaging as
Cage's co-star, but in truth she's onscreen a whole lot less than he is. Even
so, she turns in a solid performance and manages to generate better chemistry
with Cage than they did in Ghost Rider. Val Kilmer (The Saint)
plays the one cop on the force who may be even more corrupt than Cage, while
Brad Dourif (The Wild Blue Yonder) has a stellar supporting turn as
Cage's bookie. Xzibit (Derailed) is effective as the murder suspect, and
there are small but compelling roles for Jennifer Coolidge (American Pie)
and Irma P. Hall (The Ladykillers). Michael Shannon turns up too, but
isn't really given anything that would allow him to make much of an impression.
Finally, I want to note the performance of J.D. Evermore (Stop-Loss), who
offers a brand of sleazy weirdness in one scene that's hilariously off-putting
(in a way that serves the scene well, mind you).

As I popped in the disc and watched the trailers that preceded the feature,
I grew worried about the Blu-ray transfer. The trailers are presented in a very
sloppy, half-hearted fashion with poor detail and depth, but fortunately greater
care has been put into the presentation of the actual film. The 1080p image is
clean and detailed throughout, with rich blacks and strong shadowing. Some of
the more colorful moments seem a bit off, with a tiny bit of fringing here and
there. The 5.1 TrueHD audio is excellent throughout, as Mark Isham's
appropriately moody score comes through with sinuous clarity. The handful of
louder scenes really have quite a kick, while dialogue and sound design are
well-mixed throughout.

Extras are pretty light. I was disappointed to discover that Herzog did not
provide a commentary for the film, as his commentaries are generally such a
fascinating listen. However, we do get a 30-minute documentary on the making of
the film, which is an odd but compelling watch. Progressing in a sort of casual,
free-flowing fashion, the documentary blends behind-the-scenes footage (a dead
alligator being cut open, Herzog directing extras, Xzibit cackling at the
selection of crack pipes being used on the film, etc.) with brief interview
snippits with the cast and crew. While this approach can be a little
frustrating, at least it doesn't feel like a standard EPK-style piece. Herzog
also offers a couple of valuable comments that are well worth tuning in for; as
they go a long way towards helping one understand what the director was trying
to achieve with the film. There's also an exceptionally beautiful HD photo album
by Lena Herzog, plus a theatrical trailer.